Judicial squattering 101

Correspondent | Monday October 5, 2015 12:15

 

In return we are now led by individualistic, selfish, egocentric and self-centred ideologies.

Ideologies that centre-around the creature of demi-gods; authoritative authors of our destinies who take no advice except from their own cheerleaders; capitalistic dictators who together with a select few benefit from the status quo.

Let us now look more holistically at the issue of Judicial Squattering. Squattering by definition implies a situation where somebody lives or stays in a place or position temporarily.

This means that the person cannot live or stay there for long. It comes from the word “squat” .When I was still a university student in the early 2000s,I used to be a squatter-boy and there were a great many of us. We used to get off campus allowance while residing on-campus having campus accommodation.

Sometimes you would just sleep-in with your mate who would sometimes put you in “exile” by locking you outside if his girlfriend from the village visited. It was not a very nice thing to be on “exile”. Sometime back, it was quite in fashion to hear of the “Yellow Monster” that erased people’s houses off the ground (one then Member of Parliament even nearly got himself killed trying to fight the “Yellow Monster”). It was really a sad situation for all those poor people. So what does Judicial Squattering mean looking at all the above situations.

It has since being established that the President has the power to employ and fire judges barring the outcome of the ongoing court cases where the Law Society of Botswana together with Motumise are challenging these power. This essentially means that judges can only stay in that position when and if the President likes of course with help from his buddies. This is a really uncomfortable position for all the men of the cloth. It is a known that a Judge can even go into the Septugenarian ages in this position, mellowing well like good old wine.

Now their life-spans in that position, if ever they reach it, has been greatly reduced in probabilities especially for those who are seen to be anti-establishment.

We should shudder to contemplate how vulnerable our democracy will be when this most important institutions can no longer function properly when it is controlled by a select few at the expense of the masses. A referendum is coming in 2018, watch this space.

Baiphi Roberto Segabo